As the Canada "tax holiday" starts, Walmart increased the price of an item by the amount I would have saved

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨eezeebee@lemmy.ca⁩ to ⁨mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world⁩

Canada has implemented a new tax savings from December to February for some things like taxable groceries, crafts, and gaming physical media. I wanted to get a new Xbox controller and found the best price at Walmart for $55 a week ago. The tax holiday starts today and I now see that the $55 has increased to $62 and change, which is about how much tax I should be saving. Great to see this thinly veiled attempt to help Canadians ( /s - win votes) is just going to be extra profit in the corporations’ pockets.

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kurushimi@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
See, trickle down economics works ladies and gents /s

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- saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Fuck this is gold.
  
  Well, unless people realise the actual worth of gold… But until then.
  
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  - darkpanda@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    How would trickle down work with gold? I’m picturing some kind of golden shower?
    
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- masterspace@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That’s not really relevant. A break in sales tax that just targets consumer necessities should be a progressive tax.
  
  The problem is that a lack of competition in this country means that grocers can raise their prices with no fear of losing customers
  
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  - CileTheSane@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It doesn’t matter how much competition there is of they’re all going to do it anyway.
    
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- tal@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This has nothing to do with supply-side versus demand-side economics.
  
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adarza@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
the prices probably won’t go back down in february, either.

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- ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Prices go up and stay up.
  
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- dan@upvote.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They’ll only go down if customers stop buying, which they won’t.
  
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- acockworkorange@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They may go down 3% for some products and they’ll make a big deal out of it.
  
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OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Reminds me when Alberta reduced the tax on gas, and within a few weeks consumers were paying the same amount again

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- Chip_Rat@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Ontario did this too. Took a few weeks tops, and now we pay the same as we always have, except none of the money goes to our roads, just to big oil.
  
  Thanks Ford.
  
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  - whoisearth@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I laugh because he keeps extending it too and I sure and shit bet he will extend it again so the next government to come in has a poison pill in killing his gas rebate effectively raising the price of gas drastically overnight.
    
    This is 100% intentional by the OPC. Bunch of fuckwits.
    
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  - ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    His supporters say it’s because Trudeau has too much tax on gas
    
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- Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Betcha you get reminded again when Canada sweeps the cons in because cArBOn tax and then we pay the same by Monday for everything.
  
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lemming741@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Tax credits are always a government gift to corporations.

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thepreciousboar@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In any reasonable country, that should be illegal. In many places it is

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- nexusband@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Name one. Price hikes are not illegal in any country in Europe. Changing prices after selling and other shady stuff is illegal in most European countries on the other hand, but this is not it. If the 55 were on sale before, a “sale” price can be axed as most see fit. This screams coincidence and bad luck to me.
  
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  - Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It should be illegal for any store to increase prices by more than 0.5% per month for any product in my opinion.
    
    Even if massive inflation hits they can still increase prices by 6% after a year, but they at least won’t be able to immediately increase prices by 10-20% after taxes are lessened or a month before a sale is supposed to start.
    
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- Wispy2891@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  In Italy when the government reduced vat on ebooks from 22% to 4% not a single publisher passed the savings to the customer and they even increased the prices
  
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Windex007@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Might be betraying my age here, but do you remember when GST was 7%? EXACTLY the same thing happened.

GST breaks strictly pad the revenues of business AT THE COST of funds to the public purse. Does a fat fucking zero to the wallets of consumers.

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- bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  GST?
  
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  - plaguesandbacon@lemmynsfw.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    General sales tax we have had in Canada for years. Tax on all goods and services. Used to be 7% but dropped to 5% a number of years ago
    
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  - porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Sales tax, has different acronyms in different countries such as Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST)…
    
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SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Well the debate should be over whether the taxes cause things to be expensive or it’s corporate greed causing things to be expensive.

Next time you see one of the ubiquitous Poilievre ads claiming it’s taxes that’s making things unaffordable, think about where the problems actually are.

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Kichae@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Seems like an opportunity to use this in attack PP’s tax-cut rhetoric, and to attack the oft-repeated talking points from business that tax increases will be passed on to consumers.

Tax cuts are eaten by businesses, so long as the businesses believe that people will continue to buy. Tax increases will also be eaten by businesses, so long as the businesses believe that people will refuse to buy at a higher price. It’s all being taken by or from shareholders.

It’s a shame no political entities will actually touch this with anything more pointed or useful than “that’s appalling!”

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Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You didn’t happen to take screenshots did you? It’s something that should be reported to the media as well

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  You didn’t happen to take screenshots did you? It’s something that should be reported to the media as well
  
  I wish I had thought of it. I tried the Honey extension which sometimes shows historical prices, but no luck this time. I couldn’t find any other way to double check the previous prices either.
  
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  - dan@upvote.au ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    See if it’s on the Internet Archive (web.archive.org)
    
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TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
That’s probably illegal.

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- Vinny_93@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It has been ruled illegal in the Netherlands only last year but companies still do it and het away with it.
  
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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It was so hastily-implemented that I think it’s either an oversight or by design.
  
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- deranger@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It is in the US.
  
  The FTC’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing generally require that a seller offer an item at a price for a reasonable, substantial period of time in good faith, and in the regular course of business, before advertising that price as the former or regular price (16 C.F.R. § 233.1). The FTC considers it deceptive to offer an item for sale at a higher price for a short period of time in order to support a claim that an item is discounted when the price is then lowered. This practice is prohibited.
  
  Additionally, most states have consumer protection statutes that prohibit sellers from making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of a price reduction (for example, Cal. Civ. Code § 1770(a)(13)). Several states also expressly regulate the length of time an item must be offered at a regular price and amount of time it is on sale (for more information, see Practice Notes, Promotional Pricing: Specific State Laws and “Up To” Discounting Law and Practice: Promotional Pricing: State-by-State Requirements).
  
  From here
  
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  - adarza@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    tell that to amazon and every other retailer that jacks prices up the week or so before a ‘sale’
    
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  - ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The price hike in Canada’s instance, wouldn’t violate US law.
    
    They aren’t advertising a “sale”. You just aren’t paying taxes on what you buy, and it isn’t wal mart doing it, it’s the government. Wal mart is just choosing to screw over the buyers and the government all in one go.
    
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  - shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    In that case, they won’t lower it in February than it’s not illegal because they’re not offering it for a higher price for a short amount of time.
    
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- henfredemars@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It is, and they don’t care.
  
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  - StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    When fines are “the cost of doing business.”
    
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ohellidk@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Guess they’re using the “black Friday” technique to lure in shoppers, again!

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SkyNTP@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
All prices are set based on what consumers are willing to pay.

The only way prices ever go down is by exercising a decision not to buy something or to go somewhere for an item.

It will not come from the government, unless the government mandates a specific rate.

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- IzzyScissor@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They could also provide the cheaper alternative, generating revenue for the government, providing goods at a discount and forcing corporations to match prices.
  
  Like that’ll happen, though.
  
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- surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is why sales tax is silly unless it’s purposefully punitive. Like with cigarettes.
  
  If they want to give back to consumers, then literally give money to consumers.
  
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  - LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I think it depends on the area. Places like Florida did well with sales taxes because they have large amounts of tourism. So they can have no state income tax, and no tax on groceries, yet make enough in taxes to do everything else they need. That said, sales tax is 6% from the state, and areas boost it based on other needs. .5% for teachers and .5% for local infrastructure was what I grew up with.
    
    Now living in Tennessee taxes are 10% and they charge it on groceries here… which kind of sucks. I wish stores would just include the tax on the sticker. When running on a budget I really don’t want to be saying 6.99 okay that’s 7.69 in my head and have to keep track while figuring out what I can afford to eat that week.
    
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- SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Well the government can break up corporations which results in more competition. They can also enforce standards which also allows more competition. This gives people more options so they can’t just set prices in a monopolistic way.
  
  Unfortunately there’s not much the Canadian government can do about Walmart and Microsoft as they aren’t Canadian companies. And Kamala’s opportunity economy has been cancelled so it doesn’t look there’s going to be any positive change in the US for foreseeable future.
  
  But they could break up Loblaw’s at least.
  
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  - Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    They can absolutely tell Walmart they have to reduce their footprint or break up in Canada. They don’t lose their sovereignty just because it’s an American Corporation. If they think Walmart is using global profits to unduly influence Canadian markets they can introduce a tax or even ban them.
    
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intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think the answer here is to buy that somewhere other than WalMart. Are there any stores nearby that didn’t increase their price on the controller?

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Vorticity@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I don’t say any of this to say that I think what Walmart is doing here is ethical, onky to say that it is logical from their standpoint if they assume there won’t be any blowback.

Companies charge what they think they can get for a product. The tax is part of the price. If they think an item will sell for $5.26 including tax, it is reasonable for them to think it will still sell for $5.26 if the item isn’t taxed.

That isn’t to say this is nice on their part, but the current system doesn’t incentivise them to be nice. It incentivises profit.

It does seem like they took the easy route to gain more profit. It is likely that, in the a absence of tax, their profit would be maximized by a price that is somewhere between the old pre-tax price and the old post-tax price.

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah, I shouldn’t have been surprised. This is normal psychopathic behaviour for a corporation.
  
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- CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Working behind the scenes with retail pricing (not Walmart) I can say this is 100% how it works.
  
  Also have been given a sheet listing all of my department’s products that were below a specific profit margin. Told that we had a sale coming in 2 weeks so make sure to raise prices on those before then so that I didn’t have a drop in my overall department sales. If the customers noticed and asked, we were to inform them the ‘sale’ was to offset the price hike that just happened because we were looking out for them.
  
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  - phx@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Raising prices then advertising a “sale” at the same/higher price IS actually against the law though. Unfortunately we have terrible enforcement of these laws but they do exist:
    
    …canada.ca/…/ordinary-selling-price
    
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EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This is exactly what the “Taxation is theft” morons don’t understand. They think if the government no longer takes their cut, everybody will just have X amount of money more, and the market won’t just swallow that up without giving you a single thing in return.

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Gammelfisch@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I would support Canadian Tire over Walmart.

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- nik282000@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The time that product spends on the shelves of a Canadian Tire is just a layover before its permanent move to a landfill. They are Coors quality at Heineken prices.
  
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  - Mushroomm@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I bought a Husqvarna chainsaw from Canadian tire and it was garbage. I thought I was getting the same one my buddy got (he got his at the local kubota). Turns out Husqvarna just licenses out their name for the right price. It was a garbage chainsaw with orange plastic and the sticker was even upside down.
    
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- intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Do they sell xbox controllers?
  
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  - Flatfire@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    No, but Best Buy does. As does Canada Computers, Shoppers Drug Mart, Gamestop, etc. none of which are as bizzarely aggressive about nonsensical pricing schemes.
    
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Eddbopkins@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
companies will 100% of the time do anything even illegal things to make more money.

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- ChildeHarold@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  that’s the thing that pisses me off: the tax often increases the perception of how much people are willing to spend. even if you remove or decrease the tax, the companies just inflate the price to fatten their margins. Rule #1 of capitalism: the consumer always loses.
  
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  - Eddbopkins@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    “the consumer always loses” good point. and good luck in this dystopian society.
    
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M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I am just really glad none of the crap I sell is included. The list and logistics to comply with this “holiday” is insane.

Lets say you run a liquor store:

Beer, cider, sake and wine are now not taxed

But wine, cider and sake over 22.9% is still taxed

Spirit coolers and premixed alcoholic beverages are now not taxed

Spirit coolers and premixed alcoholic beverages over 7% are still taxed

Gift boxes/baskets are taxed

Unless those boxes/baskets have more then 90% the value in beverages that meet the tax holiday requirements

This is not even opening the other categories (Oh don’t even think about child car seat/strollers). The cost of this program on stores and taxpayers (the cost of it is payed by the lack of tax and also the tax collected being diverted to this program) is not worth the 5% off some people will see (since most places will just up the price 5%).
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- UmeU@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It would cost thousands in labor to set up temporary tax rates based on alcohol content. Most systems have tax rates which apply to product categories, not alcohol content. Liquor store pos systems in the US, at least in my state, typically don’t even store the abv in the price book, which would make this taxation virtually impossible to comply with.
  
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  - M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeap, this is Canada where stuff like this is rolled out in a month or so and businesses are just told to comply.
    
    (Oh and those examples are from the Canada.ca official list not hyperbole)
    
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StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Talking point bots will blame Trudeau for this.

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DJDarren@thelemmy.club ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
That’s more than mildly infuriating.

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s not all bad - now instead of saving $7 I will be saving the whole $55 since I won’t buy it!
  
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ryper@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If the controller was $55 yesterday and $62 today there would definitely be shenanigans, but a week ago? It could just be that a sale ended since you last looked.

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They are ridiculously expensive to begin with, thus my waiting for a special occasion to spend that much money to get a first-party one. Here it is, probably priced lower than the others because of the ugly colour that I kind of like.
  
  Image
  
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  - ryper@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That controller is the same price on Amazon, and Camelcamelcamel shows it went up to that on Dec 6, Friday of last week. It was probably the same with Walmart.
    
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robocall@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Report them

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Report them
  
  How?
  
  I have not been able to find anything about restrictions to stop the price gouging.
  
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  - Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s a by province thing, search customer protection [province]
    
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gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Is that legal? (Am American - idk about Canadian legal strictures around that, but it definitely feels like it’d run afoul of some sort of consumer protection legislation or something like that)

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mister_newbie@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not buying a new controller until Valve Ibex releases. If one of mine breaks before then, it’ll be an inexpensive 8bitdo 2C.

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someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What about other stores?

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- eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  What about other stores?
  
  They’re $75+ elsewhere. And I refuse to buy from sketchy “marketplace” sellers on sites like Best Buy where I see reviews saying they’re used but advertised as new, missing components, etc.
  
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  - someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Did the price go up in other stores as well when the tax holiday came into effect?
    
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x00z@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If taxes lower, that’s good for both the consumer and seller. Their profit margin doesn’t even change.

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- i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Explain your math. It’s absolutely 100% benefit to the seller and 0 benefit to the buyer.
  
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  - x00z@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    How so?
    
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